Sunday, July 30, 2006

I'm tired and I can't complain because Eric ran 50 miles yesterday and has the house rights to the "I did a long run and I'm tired" all locked up. Dang! Here's how the weekend went.

We got up at 3:15 am yesterday so we could leave the house by 4:10 to pick up Rob and Darcy at 4:30. I decided to make a cup of tea to go - which was a good decision. We were told the Starbucks we were meeting at opened at 4:30, turns out that's only on weekdays. We drove to the next town and waited outside the Starbucks there for them to open. Luckily, I had my tea which I enjoyed while the others were jonesing for their coffee. (Rob, please note the superior attitude here). We finally got everyone their morning coffee and got on the road. We got up to the start, Eric and Rob checked in, we chatted with a few other runners and I got to meet TC. It was really cold up there so as soon as Eric handed me his jacket, I added it to the long sleeve shirt, light jacket and sweatshirt I already had on. I had already changed into long pants, socks and hiking boots to try and stay warm. The race started and Darcy and I headed to the first aid station. It was an uneventful drive and very easy to find. We had to walk in about a quarter mile - this station was only a few miles in, so all we were carrying were the water bottles. Both Rob and Eric opted to start out without them and pick them up here. The guys came in together and were cheerful and happy.We left them there and moved on to the next crew-accessible station. It was actually "not recommended" but I figured if I could make it to the not-recommended station of CCC, then I could make it to this one. We drive an all-wheel-drive Honda Element that does pretty well on the service roads. We started up the road and it was pretty uneventful - then we passed the sign that warned of rough road ahead. We started seeing a lot of washed out areas and it was full of switchbacks. We had one exciting moment where a young lady was coming down the road and didn't pull over, so I had to pull over on an incline. Then she froze up when she got next to me, so I started trying to creep past her - and my wheels were spinning. I finally got it going after shifting into low and giving it a little more gas than I wanted to. After that it was a steady climb for about five miles - full of gigantic potholes and washboardy. There were some areas where the gravel had washed away and it was slick rock. But in the end we made it - and so did quite a few others. Darcy and I hung out in the car for a while (trying to stay warm) till I started getting antsy. I always start worrying that I missed the guys or that I will miss them by sitting in the car, so we finally piled out, set up the gear and headed over to the table. We probably waited another 45 minutes, then the guys came in. We swapped out the bottles, added gu and ecaps, I gave Eric a couple of his peanut butter tortillas, we got instructions for the next time we'd see them and sent them off. There was a college kid there supporting a couple of his friends - he'd caught a ride up with another crew and we gave him a ride back down. It was fine going down - other cars were on the way up, but the whole pulling over and passing thing worked much better.The next station was back at the start line. We pulled out the lawn chairs, set them in a patch of sunlight, set the gear up so we'd be ready and hung out some more. Other than the fact that the sunlight shifted and we were cold again, it was fun. This time Eric came in before Rob. He sat down to change his socks and I swapped out his other gear. He was feeling good. Rob came in and Darcy took care of him, then they left together again. We loaded back up and left for the final aid station.We found a parking spot close to the station and figured out how much time we'd have - about 3 to 4 hours. We tilted the seats back and pulled out our books and magazines (we decided to stay in the car where it was warm). I actually took a nap. We ate and read and talked and napped till we started seeing runners that we knew were close to where Eric and Rob were in terms of time. We decided since they had to run right by the car, we'd just drop the tailgate and hang out there. We finally saw Eric coming down the hill toward us - I grabbed his bottles and sent him onto the aid station while I swapped them out, then ran down there to meet him. We talked for a minute about where Rob was, then Eric gave me a dirty and sweaty kiss (to the cheers of the volunteers) and took off again. I wandered back up to Darcy and the car. After about 45 minutes, we realized we were going to miss Eric finish if we waited for Rob. We walked up the hill to see if we could spot him and worried at it a bit. We were trying to decide what we should do, and if he'd be okay if we left. We finally checked with the volunteers to make sure they would have every thing we thought he'd ask for, and told them to watch for him and left.

We got to the finish and saw Eric come in 20 minutes later. He rolled in at 10:50! He was hoping for a 12 hour finish, so he was pretty happy. I went off with Eric to get his warm clothes while Darcy checked on Rob; we found out he went through the aid station 15 minutes after we left. Eric cleaned up and bundled up and went to the barbeque line. We set up the chairs again so Eric could sit while we waited for Rob. It was so cold by this point that I went and got the space blanket from our first aid kit to wrap around Eric. After a while I decided to walk out to the road and wait for Rob. He came around the corner almost immediately and told me he'd been looking for me at the start of the road. I jogged to the chute with him - he was in fine Rob form - disappointed but making light of it. One thing about Rob, even when he's upset with himself, he's makes non-stop jokes and keeps us laughing. I got him some dinner and we listened to the awards presentation while he ate. After that, we headed home. It was a long and cold day, but fun. It's always great to watch an ultra, and especially fun to have Darcy to hang out with.

Now, for today. I met Sonya, Margaret, Darcy and Monica at 6 am for our run. We ran 14 miles in 2:58. I'd say we stopped three times, for probably a total of 10 minutes during the run, but otherwise kept the 9/1 run/walk rhythm. It felt hard today - I was tired from the long day yesterday, and I don't think I was mentally prepared. I know that I'm still a little bummed with the heart thing, and I think I was feeling a little tentative about this run. It actually turned out just fine - other than being tired, I was good. Still working out the fueling kinks, so I had an upset stomach part way through, but that settled down by about five miles. Darcy was only going to go 10 today and ended up going the whole 14 which was awesome! My average hr was 140 with a high of 154 - not too bad, though I managed to keep it lower on the 16 miler a few weeks ago.

This afternoon the running club had a potluck at Elaine's beautiful house. She is leaving for Iraq in one week and this was our going away party. We are really going to miss her - hopefully she'll be able to keep in touch via email. We had a great time, wonderful food and lots of good conversation.

Riley had a great time at camp and it sounds like he learned a lot. He's full of enthusiasm for training right now, which is great. There's a waist high pile of stinky-teenage-boy camp clothes waiting in the laundry basket for me to tackle tomorrow - I chose to take on the stinky-dirty-ultra-runner clothes today. Other than that it's back to the normal weekday schedule tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Glad to hear the long run went well this morning. I thought about getting up this morning for about 5 seconds before I went to bed. Of course Tyler still woke me up at 7:30. Thanks for crewing yesterday even if you did abandon me just to see your husband finish.